Balloon
Balloon, labeled 'The Manipulative One (until season 2) ', is a male contestant on Inanimate Insanity, and team captain of Team Chickenleg. He returned to compete in Inanimate Insanity II, and was placed on The Grand Slams. "Oh, COME ON!" - Balloon when something goes horribly wrong to Balloon. Personality In the first season of Inanimate Insanity, Balloon is infamously known as the most manipulative character, as well as the most hated. Balloon enjoys manipulating other players into doing what he says, mostly because he believes that he is the most important player on Team Chickenleg since he's the team captain. This causes many of the contestants on the show to have a major dislike for Balloon. While he is mostly stuck up, he also is very quiet after his elimination, saying only phrases of disagreement or anger. Balloon returned with a better attitude for Inanimate Insanity II, however, many people are still skeptical of him. A few players, like Soap and Suitcase, begin to trust him, but not entirely. Balloon is starting to be nicer and less mean to the others, and some of the contestants respect that. Balloon's attitude adjustment was explained to Suitcase in Let 'Er R.I.P, revealing that he was manipulative in Season 1 because he thought would help him win the show. Coverage Inanimate Insanity In The Crappy Cliff, Balloon was briefly seen at the beginning of the episode, however his first main appearance was when he jumped of the 60 ft cliff for the first challenge. Balloon was confident however when he jumped he glided very slowly with helium and after 1 hour and 20 minutes he finally reached the water avoiding the elephant feces. Balloon was then excited when he found out he would be picking the teams with Lightbulb who also avoided the elephant crap, however, when MePhone4 announces they will be picking the teams next episode, Balloon gets upset. In A Lemony Lesson, Balloon throws a fit and damands a prize, then Balloon and Lightbulb are allowed to pick the teams. Balloon is then angry that Lightbulb gets to choose first as he landed in the water first last time. When Balloon finally picks his team the only people he actually wanted on his team were Pickle , Bomb, OJ, and Pepper. Salt & Taco were picked by other players of the team annoying Balloon. When they have to pick the team names Balloon called the team "Team Awesome". In the next challenge the teams have to get as much lemons from the lemon tree in there basket. Balloon then refers to Taco as "the useless one". However, he uses her as an advantage and kicks her up in the lemon tree to get there lemons. Balloon then became angry when Bomb said that she can only speak French and some other words, stating that they're so doomed. When Pickle tells Balloon to be nicer to Taco, Balloon then cusses at Taco so Pickle kicks Balloon away. Balloon then lands in the tree but can't see any lemons so he accuses the tree of being "rigged". When there is only 20 seconds left and Team Chicken Leg have pretty much lost Balloon blames Taco and kicks her. This however makes Taco barf out 31 lemons and Lightbulb's team, Team Epic have 32 lemons. Taco then barfs out 2 more lemons so that Team CL have 33 lemons and they win. Paper is then eliminated from Team Epic.﻿ In The Arena of Death, because of Marshmallow popping Balloon in the beginning, Balloon was not seen the entire episode, untill he returned briefly at the end, but popped again by Pencil. In One-Shot Wonder, Balloon was seen after the intro talking to OJ and Bomb about Marshmallow popping him in the previous episode. The talk then progresses into Balloon convincing the two to form an alliance. Even though Bomb was confused about the alliance, they formed it in which OJ became suspicious. After Me-Phone4 explained the rules, Balloon suggested to the team to test out the slingshot using Salt as a dummy. After she finally gives in, Balloon and Pickle fling her but trip in the process and flung her into the gorge resulting in Pepper jumping in as well to save her. Balloon then tells Pickle to launch him which results in him flying very slowly to the finish. Right before he makes it, Pickle flings Taco who pops him. In The Stacker, in a little cutscene with no animation, he along with Bomb, Salt and Pickle stack their golfballs and are immune and get a prize. In War De Guacamole, Balloon did not do anything in this episode other than stand there at occasional times. Notably at one point, he is seen on the ground in a pathetic position. In Sugar Rush, Balloon and the rest of Team Chickenleg were up for elimination. At Elimination Time, the contestants got to publicly vote who is eliminated. Balloon voted for Salt, probably due to the fact he thinks she is annoying. Salt then votes for Balloon, and Pepper follows Salt and does the same. Balloon's alliance, consisting of OJ and Bomb, go against him. OJ calls him "a jerk" and votes for him, and Bomb does the same. Pickle and Taco call him fat and vote for him too. MePhone4 then announces Balloon is eliminated at 6 out of the total 7 votes. OJ then said that he "had to see this coming, considering he was a jerk to everyone!" A flashback montage played of Balloon being mean to the others, and then Balloon was eliminated with the new halloween style transportation system. At Idiotic Island, he landed on Knife and was popped. Eliminated In 4Seeing The Future, Balloon was briefly and partially seen in idiotic island when Pepper landed in idiotic island. In The Snowdown, Balloon is seen in Idiotic Island along with all of the other eliminated contestants when Lightbulb falls in and shatters. Later, MePhone says that the viewers get to pick an eliminated contestant to rejoin the game. Balloon is given time to speak, yet doesn't know what to say, and before he can say anything, Knife's dora doll that Knife threw earlier hits and pops him. During the credits, when it is time for Balloon to have his speaking part in the Island of Misfit Objects song, he starts to speak but is then popped, likely by Knife, who says his part for him- "Or a balloon that pops way too much". In Double Digit Desert, Nickel discusses with Baseball who will rejoin the game, Baseball states that it is obvious that Balloon will not. Balloon yells defensively, and Paper confronts him, making it clear that Balloon will not rejoin and he will instead. MePhone4 states during the rejoining ceremony that the person with the least amount of votes was pretty obvious, and it ended up being Balloon, who got only 10 votes. He exclaims "What?!" in a surprised fashion and is egged. He floats very slowly back down to Idiotic Island, as all of the other non-rejoiners pass by him. Finally, upon Paper rejoining, he jumps down and violently kills Balloon by slamming into him, causing him to pop. When MePhone asks Paper why that he did this, Paper says that he had swore to kill somebody when he got out of Idiotic Island, and that he had to keep his promises. Later, when Bomb wins the challenge and also a trip around the earth, he invites everyone but Balloon, because "he's fat". In Aquatic Conflict, Balloon was seen at the end of the slideshow alone on Idiotic Island with a Forever Alone face, as he was not invited on the trip. In Inanimate Smackdown, Balloon and the rest of the eliminated contestants screamed in terror as Bomb hurled towards Idiotic Island. In The Great Escape, Balloon and the other eliminated contestants are revealed to have survived the explosion, and together swim off Idiotic Island on a boat. However, they end up being caught by MePhone, who sends them to an identical clone of Idiotic Island that exists for no apparent reason. In The Tile Divide, Balloon and the other Idiotic Island inhabitants are seen looking on as Bow lands into her small box. In The Penultimate Poll, Balloon was seen been temporarily released from idiotic island with the other eliminated contestants. When Nickel said that Knife acted weird lately, Balloon said he knows. He also said that it is so unbelievable that Taco made it to the Final 3. Balloon voted for Taco. Pickle told him not to vote for her. Balloon yelled at Pickle by saying that he sucks causing him to pop Balloon. After that, Balloon was not seen for the rest of the episode. In Journey Through Memory Lane (Part 1), OJ was shocked that he had a lot of fans, possibly even Balloon. Balloon replied "No, not really." to annoy OJ. In Journey Through Memory Lane (Part 2), Balloon did not cheer for OJ after his win, but was suprised when Taco revealed her true identity. Inanimate Insanity II In Breaking The Ice, Balloon wrote graffiti on Hotel OJ and was not invited to OJ's party for his behavior last season. Later, when MePhone4 was picking the old contestents from Season 1 to join Season 2, Balloon was selected fifth. He spoke without recycled lines for the first time in years, shocking all the old contestants. Salt was suprised that he talked, so Balloon explained since he joined the season, he might as well started saying actual stuff again. Salt rejected this and reminded Balloon that no one likes him. Balloon said it's not true right before Toilet hopped up to him and repeated that nobody likes him. He replies with his signature quote: "Oh, come on!" In both challenges, Paintbrush popped him before anything else happened. In Marsh on Mars, Balloon said he want to help, but Cheesy said he was not very "pop-ular." Balloon admitted he was a bit bossy, but not evil, so Suitcase was glad Balloon could help on the rocket. Nickel was surprised that Balloon was actually helping and not annoying people. When the rocket was done, Balloon wanted to get in the rocket, but Baseball had doubts and thought he might hack the rocket. Suitcase said that Balloon must redeem himself, so Baseball eventually accepted him. On Mars, Balloon floated away and noticed the gravity was weird. He, along with Suitcase and Microphone successfully delivered Marshmallow back to Earth and won the challenge for their team. In Tri Your Best, Nickel was picking the triathlon team, so Suitcase nominated Balloon for the challenge. Balloon wanted to, but said he was too slow. During the challenge, Toilet accidentaly knocked Box into the pool. Balloon tried to save Box but was falling slowly before saying his signature quote once again: "Oh, come on!" In Cooking for the Grater Good, he wanted the "Elimination Time" theme from Season 1, which was removed due to how terrible it was. When he was declared safe at 163 votes, he received a Poison Ivy burger, causing him to scratch himself and pop. During the challenge, he helped Suitcase get ingredients, even though Suitcase got a Flower instead of Flour, causing the Slams to lose again. In A Kick In The Right Direction, Balloon is shown safe with an unknown amount of votes. He is next seen asking who the goalie for the soccer match will be. Later, he was seen when Nickel was showing Knife how to use sarcasm. However, Knife ended up making Balloon cry and run away. His team managed to win, though, saving him from elimination. In Let 'Er R.I.P., Balloon travels along with Baseball, Nickel and Suitcase into the mansion. Once inside, he and Suitcase are scared away by Nickel's scary story. The two are then confronted by Knife, who notes to Suitcase that she was alone with Balloon, the most untrustworthy character. Later, Suitcase snaps at Balloon, criticizing him of his previous manipulative attitude. Balloon reveals to Suitcase that he only acted bossy because it's how he thought he would win. After Suitcase apologizes to Balloon, Bow's ghost appears and flies inside Balloon, inflating and popping him. In Everything's A-OJ, Balloon seems excited by the prospect of returning to Hotel OJ. Knife reminds him that he probably won't be welcome since he vandalized it with spray paint the last time he was there. Balloon is under the impression that in the long time since, both he and Knife have changed. Knife argues that just because he may feel like a different person mentally, the people in the hotel won't see that and just view him the way they always did. Pickle insults Balloon's intelligence, causing Balloon to snap, stating that he at least knew Taco was "nothing but trouble." Knife leaves Balloon, citing that he truly hasn't changed, causing him to deflate sadly. Balloon does perform a noble act later in the episode by bringing to MePhone's attention that Suitcase was unfairly eliminated. In Theft and Battery, Balloon is first seen at the elimination table. Then, he asks if MePhone4 will be in the elimination. MePad then says that MePhone4 is a tad bit late. Balloon is safe with 768 votes. Then, they go to the balloons. When the Grand Slams' balloon hits MeCloud, balloon shows a weird face. Much after that, Balloon and the 6 other Grand Slams go to MeCloud. After, Balloon says to Steve Cobs that the meeple watch is dumb. Then, He immediately gets popped by Steve Cobs pressing a button. Soap gets blamed by Steve Cobs. Balloon isn't seen after this, but his team lost Hacking In mid-September of 2011, Balloon's voice actor, Nate Groth, hacked into AnimationEpic's channel and deleted the current episodes at the time, which were the original 1 through 5.5 (along with various other II-related videos - The Taco Show, Nickel's Tips On Conserving Water, etc.). Due to this, the voice actor has been fired and his lines are re-used frequently. Fans and contestants show major dislikes towards Balloon for this. Adam, the creator of the show, confirmed that Balloon's elimination was mostly because of the hacking. However, according to the credits from Breaking The Ice, the original voice actor was rehired, which explains his new lines. Trivia *'Running Gag: '''Balloon has been popped in Episodes 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 16, 19, 22, 24 and 26. In this case, he is similar to Bubble from ''Battle for Dream Island. * '''Running Gag: '''Balloon is known for his catchprase "Oh, come on!" which he says in almost every episode he competes in. *Balloon has the highest voice of all characters. **This is probably because he has helium inside him. *Balloon has the most enemies of all characters in Season 1, making him one of the most hated characters. *Bow makes a reference to Balloon in Crappy Anniversary. *Balloon was originally going to be a girl, but this was changed due to creative differences between Adam and Nate. This was also seen in The Inanimate Insanity Secrets video on YouTube by Taylor Grodin. *Originally, Balloon was not going to be in Season 2, but he was added in to develop a new personality. *Balloon is the only S1 contestant who was on Team Chickenleg to compete on S2. **Coincidentally, he was the team captain of Team Chickenleg. **Balloon got only 10 votes in season 1. Although if rejoin votes don't count, Balloon would have no votes in season 1, making him similar to Pencil from BFDI. *Balloon's voice slightly changes in Let 'Er R.I.P. * Balloon was originally going to be changed to a girl *Balloon owns a standard wristwatch, shown in Theft and Battery Gallery NB Balloon.png Balloonidle.png Balloonidlenew.png BalloonCastIdle.png BalloonPOSE.png BalloonCreation.png BalloonDisagreeIdle.png BalloonHappy.png Balloon_2.png Balloon_3.png Balloon_4.png Balloon_5.png Balloon 6.PNG BalloonS2.png|Balloon's Season 2 Idle Balloon as a werecat.png Friendly Balloon.png Balloonweird.PNG|Wait... Balloon has a weird face? BalloonJumpsoffCLiff.png Balloonintro.jpg Balloon Pose 1.png BalloonS2.png Balloon 6.PNG BalloonCastIdle.png BalloonBody.png Balloonidlenew.png BalloonOfficialPng.png MadBalloon.png Balloon 5.png Balloon 3.png Balloon 2.png Screen_shot_2011-07-03_at_7.09.30_PM.png Blah.jpg|Balloon is eliminated. Balloonfail.png Episode 8 votes.png|Balloon safe by 768 votes Category:List of Inanimate Insanity Characters Category:Team Chickenleg Category:Male Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Team Grand Slams Category:Season 2 Characters Category:Balloon Category:Team Captains Category:Grand Slams Category:Characters voiced by Nate Groth Category:Arms and Legs Category:Characters that are voiced by a unique person Category:Article stubs Category:OJ's alliance